40 Years is A Long Time
Mar. 9th, 2005 07:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksIn the summer of 1966, before the World Cup, I went on a school journey holiday to the Isle of Wight. This was in the days before the fear of being sued led to most school journeys being abandoned. On the Saturday of that school journey Everton beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 in the FA Cup Final. But it's the Wednesday before that that I recall (or, at least, I think I recall. Perhaps it was another school trip, perhaps it was another year). Chelsea went to Barcelona for an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-final tie and got stomped 5-1. It seriously hurt.
So, revenge was sweet last night. No matter that none of the players were born and that the managers were either not born or too young to remember.No matter that neither team was managed by a native to that team's country. No matter that the winning goal quite clearly involved a foul on the goalkeeper (mysteriously missed by both commentators at the time, but thankfully spotted by Terry Venables). No matter to all these things. WE GOT THE BASTARDS BACK.
That I was spunking away $140 online at the time was a minor irritant, I must admit. I played the mini-blind game on UB. The weird thing is -- I have played this game before (the Flamingo used to run it), so you would think that I would do well. But it took me a while to get a feel for the game. I turned an initial loss of $120 into a loss of just $40. Not bad for what is effectively $4-$8. And near the end I got the feeling that I knew how the game differed from a standard blind structure, whereas most of my opponents didn't.
No time to go into all the details, but clearly there is a minor shift towards pot limit style pre-flop, with implied odds for a call being greater if there is no raise. Position becomes more important and "steals" offer a lower reward to risk ratio. A frequent scenario was where three people limped and the board was checked on the flop. This gave a $10 pot (less rake). The turn bet is now $8 - effectively a pot-size bet. Clearly this is a great position to be in front if there are chasers in the house.
I then had a look at the "beat the Mob" game, but had no interest when I saw something like 250 runners. So I returned to Ultimate and lost another $90 at $2-$4. And I didn't play particularly badly. Typical occurrences were my QJ on a board of JT53 (call from button, call on flop, raise on turn, called by one loose opponent) being beaten on the river by J2. Aces promptly got cracked by a Josh Arieh soundalike on a board of J83 (he had JJ). And so it went on. These nights happen. Down to £30 up on the month. Irritating.
So, revenge was sweet last night. No matter that none of the players were born and that the managers were either not born or too young to remember.No matter that neither team was managed by a native to that team's country. No matter that the winning goal quite clearly involved a foul on the goalkeeper (mysteriously missed by both commentators at the time, but thankfully spotted by Terry Venables). No matter to all these things. WE GOT THE BASTARDS BACK.
That I was spunking away $140 online at the time was a minor irritant, I must admit. I played the mini-blind game on UB. The weird thing is -- I have played this game before (the Flamingo used to run it), so you would think that I would do well. But it took me a while to get a feel for the game. I turned an initial loss of $120 into a loss of just $40. Not bad for what is effectively $4-$8. And near the end I got the feeling that I knew how the game differed from a standard blind structure, whereas most of my opponents didn't.
No time to go into all the details, but clearly there is a minor shift towards pot limit style pre-flop, with implied odds for a call being greater if there is no raise. Position becomes more important and "steals" offer a lower reward to risk ratio. A frequent scenario was where three people limped and the board was checked on the flop. This gave a $10 pot (less rake). The turn bet is now $8 - effectively a pot-size bet. Clearly this is a great position to be in front if there are chasers in the house.
I then had a look at the "beat the Mob" game, but had no interest when I saw something like 250 runners. So I returned to Ultimate and lost another $90 at $2-$4. And I didn't play particularly badly. Typical occurrences were my QJ on a board of JT53 (call from button, call on flop, raise on turn, called by one loose opponent) being beaten on the river by J2. Aces promptly got cracked by a Josh Arieh soundalike on a board of J83 (he had JJ). And so it went on. These nights happen. Down to £30 up on the month. Irritating.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 10:20 am (UTC)I had a spell when I would imagine the hand that the flop had hit perfectly and ascribe it to the player who bet first. So I'd fold. I got over it. Looking back at last night, I rather wish I hadn't. If I had AK and the flop came 8-10-J, there would be a Q-9 somewhere. So I wasn't exactly getting value for my continuation bets. If I flopped the nuts (must have happened, oh, at least once in 200+ hands) everybody folded. And this was in games that I like: loose-passive preflop, fairly aggressive post.
Just not my night. Curious to see what effect it's had when I go back to the well.
Strangely enough, I was rather pleased to see Chelsea win last night. I have the same hypocritical view of the big bucks approach as most non-Blue fans: I hate them for having the money to "buy" success but at the same time I wish it was my lot. But Mourinho's a terrific addition to the English game: a nutter who delivers the goods. Crazy like a fox, I suppose.
And the Barca eruptions at the end were hysterically funny.